Stolen Moments (And Then Came Love Book 2) (16 page)

“I’m sure the other girls would like to hear the story of how Jackie and I met.”

“Oh that should be good.” A dark haired lady plopped down on the couch. She stretched her long leg out and crossed it over the other. Her head held high, she looked around the room like she was the queen, waiting for the entertaining story. Her dark hair had a hint of purple on the underside of it. She turned her gaze to Arianna. “Ava Steele, party crasher.”

“Arianna Halsey.” She chuckled.

“Dr. Halsey to some of us.” Liza smiled.

“Oh, the OB.” Ava shook a well-manicured finger at her. “I’ve been meaning to set up an appointment. I’m coming up on the renewal of my depo shot. I’ve got no time for babies.”

Terra rolled her eyes. “You never change, do you?”

Ava waved her finger at Terra. “It would be really boring if I did.”

Arianna shook her head at the exchange and took a seat next to Liza. “Is she always like this?”

“Over the top?” Liza whispered and then nodded. “Yep.”

“I want to hear the story about how Jackie and Everett met.” Lindsay smiled.

“Romance at its finest, I’m sure.” Terra chuckled. “Funny, I’m thirty-one years old and still haven’t heard the story of my parents getting together.”

“We don’t talk about it often.”

“Yeah, because it involves, Mom’s side of the family.” Terra laughed. “And I don’t think we’ve met any of them.”

“There’s a reason for that.” Everett sat down on a chair.

“You met your boyfriend’s parents after you got pregnant with Mina, right Arianna?” Everett glanced at her.

Arianna nodded. “Three months pregnant, right after getting kicked out of the house.”

Everett let out a whistle. “Not only was Jackie pregnant by the time I met her parents, but we were also married.”

“You married Mom, before you met her parents?” Terra’s eyes widened. “No wonder we’ve never heard this story.”

“Better yet, she was only seventeen at the time, we lied about her age at the courthouse.”

“That would never fly in these days, marriages require proof of birthdate.” Ava held up her hand and inspected her fingers. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Everett. “Technically, that means you two aren’t married.”

“Things were a little different in 1965.” Everett looked around the room. “Jackie was born in Philadelphia to a high society family. They had a family scandal early in 1964 and decided to send Jackie to live with her Aunt in Indiana. They thought sending her away would keep her out of the limelight and keep her from doing anything similar.”

“A family scandal?” Lindsay grinned. “Sounds intriguing.”

“Jackie’s older sister engagement was broken.” Everett rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward.

Ava raised an eyebrow. “People do that all the time.”

“It was an arranged engagement. The families were trying to join the two households. Your mother was engaged the same way. One of those things that had been planned since the children had been born.”

Ava blinked twice and stared blankly at Everett. “You have got to be kidding me? The feminist movement was going on at that time.”

“Some families were still a little backwards. Jackie’s family was one of them.” Everett shook his head.

Jackie walked into the room and stopped behind Everett.

“The man her sister was supposed to marry broke the engagement when it was discovered the sister had an abortion, because the baby wasn’t her fiancé’s. An illegal abortion at the time. Needless to say it was a huge scandal at the time.”

“My family decided that it was best if I was not exposed to the scandal and hoped the time I spent in Indiana would keep me from getting involved in the women's movement. To them it was important I married the man I was supposed to.” Jackie sighed.

Ava shook her head. “Jackie, your family was backwards.”

“I have to agree with you.” Jackie smiled at Everett and kissed his head. “Considering Everett was not the man I was supposed to marry.”

“Okay, your parents send you to live with your Aunt in Indiana. You and Everett ended up in the same school?” Lindsay questioned.

Jackie chuckled. “Not quite. I went to a Catholic Girls school.” She rested her hand on Everett’s shoulder.

Everett patted her hand and glanced up at her. “I was a dick.”

Jackie threw her head back and laughed. “Maybe a little.” She shook her head. “He and his friends were trying to see how many Catholic school girl skirts they could get into.”

The girls laughed.

“You sound like your kids.” Liza shook her head.

Everett shrugged. “They had to get it somewhere.”

“Wow.” Arianna chuckled. Trevor should hear this. This was the kind of information he needed about his father. Maybe then he’d understand him a little better.

“We fell in love, she got pregnant and we got married. I was eighteen, she was seventeen.” Everett grasped her hand.

“Darling, I was sixteen when we got married. My seventeenth birthday was eight days after our wedding.”

“And your parents thought your sister was a scandal.” Terra laughed. “Here you are now, ten kids later and still technically not married.”

“I can’t believe you got away with lying about your age that much.” Ava shook her head.

“The requirements were that you were both eighteen, but they didn’t make you prove you were eighteen.” Jackie shrugged. “It was a much different time.”

“Not married, I tell you.” Terra shook her head and laughed. “Any judge in their right mind would throw that document out the window.”

“Technically, unless one of them filed a complaint the state wouldn’t do anything about it. It’s a voidable marriage, but only if one of the parties takes issue.” Ava tapped her fingers on the edge of the couch.

“Oh shut it.” Terra rolled her eyes and turned to Arianna. “She’s my best friend.”

“I can tell.” Arianna laughed. Trevor was right, the family could be overwhelming.

Everett looked over at Arianna. “This started out as a story of how I met my in-laws.”

“And then we got carried away.” Arianna smiled.

“It’s fascinating to find out things like this.” Terra shook her head. “It’s hard to believe how different things were from the time you were sixteen and the time we were sixteen.”

Jackie patted Everett on the shoulder. “Tell them about meeting my parents. I’m going to finish getting everything ready.”

“My parents went with us to Philly. We get to the door of this massive house, ring the bell, and a man answers the door. He sees Jackie turns around and calls throughout the house. ‘Miss Jackie is here and she’s brought her help.’”

“Her help?” Terra’s eyes widened and she gasped. “I bet Gram had a field day with that one.”

“The butler invites us in, motions for Jackie to go into the living room and then tells us, we’ll need to go wait in the kitchen.” Everett paused and sat up straighter. He glanced around before continuing. “Gram looks at him and with the Norwegian accent she only has when she’s mad says to him, ‘The kitchen is not the place for her husband.’”

Terra slapped her hand over her mouth. “That’s Gram.”

“And I can hear the accent and it makes me shiver.” Ava shook.

Arianna smiled. She could hear it too, and she’d only met Gram once. Gram sounded like someone she wanted to get to know more.

“The butler passed out. Straight back, hit the floor.” Everett chuckled.

Arianna glanced around the women were riveted to Everett.

“Her mother comes running in the room and screams. She looks at Jackie and then looks at us and yells, ‘What have you done?’ And then runs out of the room and in comes Jackie’s Dad.”

“Oh this should be good.” Liza chuckled. “Julian got off easy compared to this.”

Everett nodded. “Much easier. To make a long story short, we told him we were married, happy, and wanted to stay that way. Her parents tried to convince Jackie she’d be better off in Philly with them, then with me, but she wouldn’t listen. They disowned her and we went back home to Indiana.”

“You forgot the best part.”

Arianna jumped. She hadn’t heard Gramps come in. She looked over to see Trevor grinning at her. “What?” she mouthed.

“I’ll tell you later,” he mouthed back and winked.

“What’s the best part?” Terra leaned forward, listening intently.

“Jackie’s father, the pompous ass, looks us over and then turns to Jackie. He says, “You don’t want to be married to some Indiana farm family, do you?” Gramps paused for effect. “And then I says, ‘The only time I’ve set foot on a farm is when I was burying the bodies.’ The color drained from the man’s face and it took Lucille everything she had to keep from laughing.”

Everett raised his eyebrow. “I don’t remember Mom fighting laughter. More like muttering in Norwegian.”

Gramps smacked Everett in the back of the head.

Trevor laughed.

Arianna chuckled. “That was great.”

“This is the reason we’ve never met Mom’s family?” Terra turned to her Dad. “They’re not dead, but they disowned her?”

Everett nodded. “Yep, you have an Aunt, an Uncle, and two grandparents out in Philadelphia. And maybe even a great grandmother.”

Terra blew out a breath. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“You’re more than welcome to meet them if you want too.” Everett shrugged. “I’ll tell you this, they don’t like me much.”

“What happened with the sister? Did they ever forgive her or was she ostracized like Jackie?” Arianna cocked her head to the side.

“She still calls Jackie from time to time, but she reconciled with the family shortly after Jackie and I left. I’m sure the idea of losing two daughters to scandal was worse than the idea of losing one.”

“Why haven’t we met her?”

“She never asks about anyone other than Jackie. It’s like the rest of us don’t exist.”

Trevor shouldered Gramps. “Can you imagine all of us randomly showing up at their house?”

Gramps laughed. “They’d call the cops and say they were being invaded by thug farmers from Indiana.”

Trevor quirked an eyebrow. “How do you farm thugs?”

Gramps smacked him in the head, just like he did Everett.

Trevor laughed.

Jackie walked in the room and cleared her throat. “If you’re done with family history hour, dinner is served.”

*****

Arianna wandered out to the sunroom to find Everett sitting there. “Figured you’d be used to the crowds.”

Everett blew out a heavy breath. “It’s been a long night. Dinners seem to take longer to prepare than brunch.”

“I can see that. Breakfast food is usually pretty quick.”

“We usually have most of it prepped the night before too, pop it in the oven and go.” Everett patted the chair next to him. “Will you tell me what’s going on with my son?”

Arianna nodded and sat down on the wicker chair. “This large family thing is new to me. My family was more like Jackie’s. I got kicked out at fifteen when I got pregnant and haven’t seen any of them since.”

“I don’t get it. My kids have done some pretty stupid stuff in their lives and have tried my patience more than once, but I never considered throwing them out. To disown them, hell, they’d have to do something damn near unforgivable.” Everett shook his head. “And for the life of me, I can’t tell you what that would be. I love every last pain in the ass.”

Arianna chuckled. “I guess some people aren’t meant to be parents.”

“I had ten children and I’m still not sure I’m meant to be a parent. It’s a hard job and I didn’t always get it right.”

“Trevor said you two had some problems while he was growing up. You missed some events in his life and he thought you worked more than you should have.”

“That’s true. I spent a great deal of time on my company that would have been better spent with my family. Jackie’s pointed that out to me many a times.” Everett let out a deep breath.

“I think his problem is more with him than it is with you.” Arianna looked down at her hands. “I’ve spent a great deal of time away from my family.”

She looked around the room. Cozy again. Why couldn’t she have been in a house like this growing up? “If my father showed up today, I’d have no clue what to say to him. Trevor has the same problem. Before he left you two weren’t on the best terms, but after spending twelve years in a rather harsh environment, he sees how he felt as being frivolous. He wants to get on better terms with you, but doesn’t know how.” She rocked in the chair and stared at the picture across from her. The whole family standing together. She counted the kids. Ten. Squinting she caught sight of a younger Trevor, in full dress uniform.

“That was taken the one time he came home after basic training. We had a good time and then he headed back to the military and we didn’t see him again unless we went to him.” Everett picked up a scrapbook and handed it to Arianna. “Jackie kept all the information she could get on him.”

Arianna took the book and scanned through the pages. Newspaper articles, programs for events.